High school golf in Bergen County makes change

Bergen County has introduced a new scoring system to determine which high school teams deserve to compete at the county golf championships.

The "Bennett System," as I call it, is a winner and should be adopted for state tournaments in the coming years because it more accurately measures team and player success.

It takes nine-hole team and player scores and factors in a course’s difficulty, as rated by the United States Golf Association. It’s superior to the current state qualifying format, which simply accepts teams that win 60 percent of their matches, or individuals who post five nine-hole scores of 4-over-par or better.

Essentially, the "Bennett System" is to golf what power points, which factors in strength of schedule, are to New Jersey high school football.

"I think it’s a fairer ranking system," said Westwood coach Paul Levesque, whose team will earn one of the 16 automatic bids, or one of four wild cards, to Thursday’s Bergen team championship. "It’s much better than the state’s won-loss record."

Westwood is one of several North Jersey teams that came up short of winning 60 percent of its matches by last Friday’s state cutoff. Why? The Group 1 Cardinals are the smallest school in the large-school Big North and were 7-6 against strong competition.

The system is the brainchild of Midland Park coach Dick Bennett and his son Shawn, a teacher in Hackensack. Five days a week, Shawn crunches numbers, after coaches put their information into the system. Today is the qualifying cutoff.

Previously, the Bergen team championship was come-one, come-all. One reason for the change, said Park Ridge athletic director Chris Brown, liaison to the Bergen County Coaches association, is a 40-team event was exceeding six hours.

The Bergen County Women’s Coaches Association has used this system successfully over the past few years to determine which girls earn All-County honors.

Dick Bennett expects the new system will encourage boys coaches to seek out better competition, rather than schedule a weaker opponent to guarantee winning 60 percent of the matches.

"I would hope that this would foster good competition," said Bennett, who will forward results of the system to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. "You say, ‘I want to play better teams, because my kids will get better playing with better kids, and they’ll get better playing on better golf courses.’ "

As the director of this month’s Girls State Championship, he will trumpet his scoring system. Last year, he discussed it with coaches around the state at an end-of-season meeting.

"There were some ambivalent feelings about it," Bennett said, "because they didn’t know enough about it."

High school golf in Bergen County makes change

Bergen County has introduced a new scoring system to determine which high school teams deserve to compete at the county golf championships.

The "Bennett System," as I call it, is a winner and should be adopted for state tournaments in the coming years because it more accurately measures team and player success.

It takes nine-hole team and player scores and factors in a course’s difficulty, as rated by the United States Golf Association. It’s superior to the current state qualifying format, which simply accepts teams that win 60 percent of their matches, or individuals who post five nine-hole scores of 4-over-par or better.

Essentially, the "Bennett System" is to golf what power points, which factors in strength of schedule, are to New Jersey high school football.

"I think it’s a fairer ranking system," said Westwood coach Paul Levesque, whose team will earn one of the 16 automatic bids, or one of four wild cards, to Thursday’s Bergen team championship. "It’s much better than the state’s won-loss record."

Westwood is one of several North Jersey teams that came up short of winning 60 percent of its matches by last Friday’s state cutoff. Why? The Group 1 Cardinals are the smallest school in the large-school Big North and were 7-6 against strong competition.

The system is the brainchild of Midland Park coach Dick Bennett and his son Shawn, a teacher in Hackensack. Five days a week, Shawn crunches numbers, after coaches put their information into the system. Today is the qualifying cutoff.

Previously, the Bergen team championship was come-one, come-all. One reason for the change, said Park Ridge athletic director Chris Brown, liaison to the Bergen County Coaches association, is a 40-team event was exceeding six hours.

The Bergen County Women’s Coaches Association has used this system successfully over the past few years to determine which girls earn All-County honors.

Dick Bennett expects the new system will encourage boys coaches to seek out better competition, rather than schedule a weaker opponent to guarantee winning 60 percent of the matches.

"I would hope that this would foster good competition," said Bennett, who will forward results of the system to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. "You say, ‘I want to play better teams, because my kids will get better playing with better kids, and they’ll get better playing on better golf courses.’ "

As the director of this month’s Girls State Championship, he will trumpet his scoring system. Last year, he discussed it with coaches around the state at an end-of-season meeting.

"There were some ambivalent feelings about it," Bennett said, "because they didn’t know enough about it."